Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 08:46:51 -0500 From: Allan Jude <allanjude@freebsd.org> To: robd@spin.net.au, freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Suggested option for the DVD Installer Message-ID: <546DF0CB.9010905@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <546DBC66.6060508@spin.net.au> References: <546DBC66.6060508@spin.net.au>
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This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 4880 and 3156) --KpGivNgiIqbDCA5XHhlCOOfb0xN8Rol7M Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 2014-11-20 05:03, Rob Diamond wrote: > Hi Guys, >=20 > I would like to suggest an option for an MBR install on the current 10.= 1 > DVD installer image. Some background: >=20 > I'm a refugee from the Linux systemd wars. >=20 > I have been running Gentoo for 10-15 years, but finally got fed up with= > the problems of keeping my system up to date. If I left the system for = a > couple of months then any attempt to upgrade something/everything would= > block because of intertwined dependencies and the fast pace of updates > to packages. So a few months ago, after trying various other Linux > distros I installed Linux Mint. It's dead easy to install, sound, video= , > printers work pretty well out of the box. But I hate the complexity of > everything, and the way it's starting to look like Windoze: >=20 > - grub2, with its unreadable config file and convoluted set-up and > update (Yeah, I know I could RTFM, but I don't want to waste a couple o= f > hours working out how to change some settings when I'll forget in a > couple of days). > - the "quiet, splash" default boot option, with the mindless jiggling > logo instead of being able to see what's going on. > - the byzantine complexity of systemd (Yeah, I know I could RTFM, but I= > don't want to waste a couple of months working out how to change some > settings when I'll forget in a couple of seconds). > - etc, etc >=20 > BTW I'm NOT a FreeBSD noob. I started off installing 386BSD on a PC-AT > (if there's anyone here young enough to remember that !), and I've got > the Walnut Creek CDROMs for FreeBSD 2.0 and 2.2 in my bottom drawer. >=20 > However, I had a problem getting FreeBSD to install on my "test" PC. Th= e > motherboard is a few years old, and the BIOS has no clue about GPT > partioning. I first tried the default install, but (and it takes a long= > time to boot and install off DVD) after rebooting my BIOS couldn't find= > an OS. I tried Googling for a clue, but as usual the problem is that > there's way too much information out there and most of it is not > current. So next I tried partitioning with gpart and setting up an MBR > disk, but I kept getting complaints about the partition not being 4k > aligned. So then I tried using the "Expert mode" patitioning, but I put= > a swap partition first, so.. no boot. Finally I found something that > said to make sure "/" was the first partition, and (after re-booting an= d > installing for the umpteenth time) I was in business. >=20 > It would have been much easier if there was a default MBR partioning > option, with a label saying something like "MBR partitioning for older > hardware", which would give installers a clue, and which got the user > going with the first (or second) install. >=20 > We can't afford to put people off by making it difficult to get their > first installation running - once you have a working system it's easier= > to learn about various aspects of the OS. But expecting inexperienced > people with older hardware to be able to work out how to partition an > MBR disk is unrealistic. They'll just give up and go back to something > like Ubuntu. >=20 > My 2 cents worth. >=20 > Best Regards, >=20 > Rob Diamond. > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-sysinstall > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > "freebsd-sysinstall-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" The installer does support MBR, for both UFS and ZFS installs This section of the handbook shows the partitioning stage for the main install option: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall-par= titioning.html#bsdinstall-part-guided So, select the disk (top item), choose modify and pick 'mbr', then choose 'create' and accept the defaults (this will create the freebsd wrapper partition). Now press the down arrow to select that partition, and select create again. This will create a freebsd-ufs partition, set the mount point to / and modify the size to be slightly smaller than your entire disk (by the amount of swap you want to have). Create 1 more partition for swap with the remaining space, change the type to 'freebsd-swap'. Then select finish, and you should be good to go. --=20 Allan Jude --KpGivNgiIqbDCA5XHhlCOOfb0xN8Rol7M Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (MingW32) iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJUbfDNAAoJEJrBFpNRJZKfQV0QAJtESmj4CpvdwPx2elo2vz/0 Q87MW8MO5LcUTcs/NkjeOnKnNjiXO0/Hhh/dROlDkBQtSultI5rmAfHtZ/cOdEfn ANIUTvW0HOfTu8fRq13orC6RS5zJn/t/XxiKnTrZ8pbaQXSYc6SEXynNk+uyBMPn lahVgQ8QhxJj0g+MBUPdIqp2pIiApQO0VfFGZngWZxF2OlX+Pw/5JaU6gG8e7ih2 BtA2R2HD613BnnMjEwZoLJ0Q3idSWL03AoPDTiovwdzs81CGf5RGFj8E66qQrsRI GyDtaVOw10nnXiDvIbX1uLh839nqO4h49N5+aJywV+Z9q887wj91ac2tKOzHZ+7R wzhQ649Q+iv8MpGG2Tkv/RXiGdM+8PvXtUtmWei5p3ZVK4Nn2Amd7UNSHMiI0iK9 JOPMLvm0u2NW+JzaFeIYYLtX987WMZdqGuMMP41p5TAd+gAKVvRWcTJ95bBXC6OP 3n4RZ/bSJKSYryG1y9X7C8eqjenNTZET5vLUaUXng5WtRFQH/IeNmKqO6q6Yindn POQktD3gKXPARYpDPWoULT9nqWxPlWG7oWT4NYCKaNbZauqHQ38odk7eXuLaD67z Je5Dr2jRGdJkVx5pS5HMRLnuv8MpP8bsBwOhMJvvB2tCEa/oXTSsfzHC1p9JNn7F vXkkehyWmgkYMHOoTWMf =uqtO -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --KpGivNgiIqbDCA5XHhlCOOfb0xN8Rol7M--
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